STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF STEEL COLUMNS WITH NOVEL CONNECTIONS IN MODULAR CONSTRUCTION

Abstract

In Today's growing world, the need for faster and improved construction techniques has also grown. Modular construction is considered a game-changing technology to this problem because of its beneficial features such as faster construction, better quality and less wastage of construction material, safer and less on-site work during construction, and lower environmental impact compared to conventional on-site construction. However, this construction technology is still new, leading to minimal design specifications, lacking strong structural systems and inter-module joining techniques. All these reasons act as a hindrance in the implementation of this technique on a large scale. With more exploration of this area, many new connection techniques have been proposed in recent years which can provide better structural integrity, improved robustness of the structure, and improved stability of the structure. This project analyzes a novel connection between the steel columns to check their reliability and performance in modular construction. The project focuses on the behavior and working of the steel columns along with the steel tenons used in the Connection. Firstly, the buckling length of the column is determined by implying a theoretical model. Then a Non-linear FEA analysis is performed to simulate the behavior of the column's Connection under the application of pure compressive force. This analysis will then be further implemented in the parametric analysis to predict the effect of tenons. This project, in all, performs an analysis of the proposed novel column connection. It discusses its applicability in modular construction and some design considerations of modular construction to ensure its effectiveness.